


Universe, How Strong am I?

by Xazz



Category: Assassin's Creed
Genre: Amputation, Fluff, M/M, Military AU, Modern AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-06
Updated: 2014-12-06
Packaged: 2018-02-28 10:26:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2728931
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xazz/pseuds/Xazz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Malik is in the military serving oversees when Altair gets a call from Kadar over there that Malik is being rushed to the hospital after his unit is attacked on the field. (NOT A DEATH FIC)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Universe, How Strong am I?

**Author's Note:**

> inspired by my [friend's picture](http://mrasayf.tumblr.com/post/104501662483/in-all-malik-loosing-his-arm-fics-malik-becomes)

No one wanted to get that call.

While the last three days had been a blur Altair could remember exactly where he’d been and what he’d been doing when the phone rang.

He’d been hanging out with his friends, having some drinks, playing cards, and eating junk food. They’d been betting with oreos and Altair was up. Or down if you wanted to look at it that way since they’d been eating them as they went. He’d been having a lot of fun. The nights running joke had been ‘sounds like my ex’ which at the time had seemed so funny. But in hindsight it made Altair’s throat close up just thinking about it.

It had been around seven at night, it was still light out, the summer drawing out the day, and his phone had started ringing. An serene cascade of notes that unlike every other phone ring he’d ever had didn’t make him feel anxious or nervous about answering. He’d have to change the tone now, because he couldn’t listen to that sound anymore. All it did was remind him of getting that call.

When Altair had picked up the sound quality was bad and he’d barely been able to understand them at first. “Hello?” he said.

“Altair? Altair? --Can --hear me?” they said a few times when Altair kept saying ‘hello’ and their voice went in and out.

“I can hear you,” he’d said, “Can you hear me?”

“Yeah. I can -- you. This is Kadar.”

“Kadar? What are you calling for?” he’d taken a sip of his beer and looked at his hand, motioning to his friends to continue playing.

“There was-” the phone cut out a second.

“What? Kadar I didn’t get that.”

“Sorry-- forward operating base-- signal,” was all he got on his end. “Malik--”

Altair had said up a bit, “Kadar,” he said again, “what did you just say about Malik?”

“Malik’s-- hospital,” he’d managed to hear, “attacked-- IED--” and Altair had felt all the blood drain out of his face. Kadar had said something else but Altair had been deaf to it. He’d just been staring straight ahead, barely breathing. At some point his phone had clicked off.

The rest had been a blur, he’d left Desmond’s after that and gone home, crawled into bed and he couldn’t remember if he’d cried or not. He’d gone to work in a complete fog and when his manager snapped at him for being spacey he’d just gone ‘my boyfriend was in an IED attack last night and is in the hospital’ and they’d backed off. Thank god. Altair couldn’t really deal with people those three days.

The second day he got a call from Malik’s mom. Malik was alive and being sent back state side to finish his recovery. Altair had nearly cried again, this time in relief. When he told her about the call he got from Kadar she seemed irritated, that Kadar would do that and not wait to break the news to him since it’d stressed Altair out so much the past three days. She’d told him what hospital Malik would be staying at till he was ready to be released.

Which was how Altair was here now, remembering the past three days. Or trying to. He didn’t remember much honestly. Just a lot of void.

The nurse had told him it was okay if he went in. Mr. and Mrs. al-Sayf had already visited Malik, Altair made sure he hadn’t gone at the same time as them.

After standing there a moment Altair finally pushed the door open, sort of afraid of what he’d find inside. He didn’t know a lot about what had happened to Malik. He just knew that his Humvee had been caught by an IED and he’d been rushed to the hospital via helicopter and had hours of surgery that had saved his life. But he didn’t know what the damage was. He’d- stupidly really- googled IED injuries and had turned off his computer in his haste to get the images off his screen. He was expecting horror.

So he was sort of surprised when he opened the door and saw Malik in the lone occupied bed, his right side facing the door and Altair, and he looked… normal. He wasn’t horribly disfigured like he’d feared and relief rushed through him.

Malik’s face when he saw Altair was not relief.

“What are you doing here?” Malik demanded.

Altair had only taken a few steps into the ward. He stopped in confusion, “I came to see you,” he said.

Malik turned away from him, “Go away.”

“What? But Malik I-

“Leave me alone!” Malik yelled, turning onto his side a bit, back facing Altair. “Please,” he added so softly Altair barely heard him.

Altair stood there for a minute, feeling as lost as he had the night Kadar had called him. “I’m glad you’re alive,” he said.

“Altair, please just-

“I missed you,” Altair said. “I’ll come back tomorrow. I shouldn’t have surprised you,” and he swallowed and left. He glanced back once more at Malik and saw him curled up on the bed shaking. Altair frowned and wanted to go to him, but knew it’d just make it worse. He knew well enough that when his boyfriend said to leave him alone it meant he was angry and didn’t want to take it out on Altair. “I love you,” he told Malik’s back.

“Go,” Malik’s voice was heavy and thick and Altair’s guess had been right, Malik was crying.

Altair closed the door after him when he left.

The next day he came after work and asked a nurse to tell Malik he was here. The nurse came back and said Malik didn’t want to see him. Altair ended up sitting outside Malik’s ward for a while instead. Whenever a nurse came by they asked him what he was doing. Altair told them and asked them if they’d ask Malik if he could come in. Every time the nurse told him no. He did the same thing the day after that, and the day after that. Always coming alone, after Malik’s parents had visited for the day. Every time the nurse asked Malik always said no, he didn’t want to see Altair.

Altair was sitting in his usual chair on the fifth day, playing on his phone between nurses. Most of the nurses knew him by now and when they saw him they’d stick their heads in and go ‘Malik, that handsome man is here to see you’ or ‘he’s still here if you want to see him’ or -Altair’s favorite- ‘your boyfriend’s waiting for you’. None of them ever had good news for Altair. Usually just, ‘not today I’m afraid’, ‘he said no again’, ‘he insisted I tell you he thinks you’re an idiot and to go away.’ The last one always got Altair to chuckle a little bit. But he never left.

A nurse came by, saw him, and veered off into Malik’s room. Altair was barely paying attention so he was surprised when the nurse came back out and said, “He said he wanted to see you.”

Altair jumped out of his chair, “He did?” The nurse was smiling and he nodded. They opened the door and Altair went in. It was dim inside, the blinds drawn closed, all the lights off. The TV was on, playing some stupid reality show he knew Malik.

Malik was still lying in bed, wearing a hospital gown with little polkadots on it, his face unshaven with a few days of growth on it and was sort of half turned towards Altar. “Hey,” Altair said with a little smile and walked closer to him. Malik didn’t smile back at him.

“Hi,” Malik said softly. He turned away from Altair when he got closer, like he was trying to hide something.

“Why are you--” but then he saw.

Malik was trying to hide his left arm. Or rather, what was left of his left arm. It was just gone a few inches past his elbow. The end was wrapped in clean bandages. There was also some scarring on the left side of Malik’s face and neck, probably from shrapnel.

“Oh,” Altair said like the wind had been knocked out of him.

“Please don’t stare,” Malik said, sounding heart broken.

Altair immediately looked away. His eyes were drawn back to the stump unwillingly but he made himself look away again and moved closer to Malik so it wasn’t so readily in his vision. “How are you feeling?” he asked, putting his hand on Malik’s thigh.

Malik licked his lips, “Better than I was,” he said.

Altair leaned over and kissed him, Malik didn’t kiss him back. “I’m so glad you’re alive,” he said and held Malik’s face in both hands. “Your stupid brother scared me so badly when he said you were taken to the hospital because of an IED. I thought you were dead until your mom called me.” He kissed Malik again and this time Malik sort of kissed him back.

When he finally took his mouth off Malik’s Malik scrubbed at his eyes with his good hand, stubbornly refusing to cry in front of him. Then Malik looked at him and made a noise that was as much hiccup as it was a laugh, because Altair was crying too. “Idiot,” he said, which was about as good as a pet name coming from Malik, and wiped at Altair’s eyes one handed.

“Well we can be crying idiots together,” Altair said.

“Yeah,” Malik said softly. Then quite to Altair’s surprise Malik said, “I’m sorry.”

“For what?” Altair asked.

Malik looked away from him, his eyes gliding over to where his missing arm was. “I came back broken like I said I wouldn’t.”

“I don’t care,” Altair said, practically talking right over him. “You’re alive,” and he hugged Malik, “That’s all I care about,” and Malik hugged him back, pressing his face into Altair’s shoulder. He felt his shirt become a bit damp where Malik’s face was and Altair just hugged him tighter. Malik said something against his shoulder but Altair couldn’t understand it, “What?” he asked.

“I said, I love you you idiot,” Malik said thickly.

Altair smiled, still embracing Malik, “I love you too,” he said and pressed a kissed against the side of Malik’s neck.

Malik moved over a bit in the bed and Altair crawled in next to him and after moving the blankets around a bit, and Altair had kicked off his shoes, they laid in the bed meant for one together. Malik pressed against Altair who put his arm around Malik’s shoulder, making sure to touch him above and not below the bandage wrapped stump of his missing arm.

They laid there for a bit before Malik asked, in a sort of worried voice, meaning he’d been thinking about it, “You-- You’re not going to leave me, right?”

“Why would I leave you?” Altair asked, squeezing his shoulder.

“Because I got fucked up oversees and that’s what people do to injured vets,” and Altair hated that Malik probably spoke from experience of knowing guys who had come back injured and their girlfriends or boyfriends had left them.

“No,” Altair promised, kissing his forehead. “I’m not going to leave you. If I was going to you ignoring me all week would have made me leave by now.”

“Yeah… I didn’t want you to see me like this,” Malik whispered.

“Like what?”

“... You know,” Malik said.

“Don’t care,” Altair said, “I care that you’re still here. And I’m never let you go again,” he moved Malik’s head so he could kiss him again. “We’ll be fine,” he promised Malik, pressing his forehead to Malik’s. “I’ll be here,” and he gently took Malik’s remaining hand and just held it. “I’ll always be here,” and he stroked Malik’s hand.

Malik just leaned against him and they stayed like that for a long time, Altair holding Malik, caressing his hand and being a comforting, warm, body. Even when the nurse came by to say visiting hours were almost over no one came back to check that Altair had actually left and they ended up spending the night just like that. It was the first of many nights Altair spent at the hospital until he could finally bring Malik home and they could move on to having the life they said they’d have once Malik came back from his tour.

 

 


End file.
